Rural Minds, a nonprofit dedicated to rural mental health, will be present at Commodity Classic to unveil the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program, a collaborative effort with the National Grange. This innovative initiative aims to address the pressing mental health challenges prevalent in rural communities, particularly affecting America’s farming families. The American Soybean Association is joining forces as a key partner in distributing this program.
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control reveals a staggering reality: suicide rates among rural residents are 64 percent to 68 percent higher compared to those in large urban areas. This disparity is particularly poignant within the farming and ranching community, where individuals, comprising only 2 percent of the population, bear the responsibility of feeding the remaining 98 percent. Shockingly, farmers and ranchers are nearly twice as likely to succumb to suicide compared to those in other professions.
The Rural Mental Health Resilience Program acknowledges the self-reliance and do-it-yourself mindset that are common among farmers and others living in rural areas by providing online access to free educational content that can be printed for distribution, links to mental health support services and a toolkit for planning, promoting and leading community conversations about rural mental health.
“We are grateful to the American Soybean Association for their partnership with Rural Minds to introduce the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program,” said Jeff Winton, Rural Minds Founder and Chairman. “Attending Commodity Classic provides us with an important opportunity to provide potentially life-saving information to confront the mental health challenges in rural America and the stigma that surrounds mental illness.”
In support of launching the Rural Mental Health Resilience Program, the American Soybean Association will help promote the program’s free rural mental health materials as a distribution partner. This initiative builds on ASA’s commitment to addressing rural mental health through their #SoyHelp program, which serves as a resource for national and state-specific mental health information in states with soy farmers.
“The farmers who lead ASA have long supported means and methods to not only put information in the hands of those who need it but also reduce any lingering stigma attached to talking about farm stress and mental health in our rural communities. We maintain a list of available farm stress resources — including Rural Minds — on our website, but it is important that we and others support organizations like Rural Minds that can be solely devoted to this critical topic year-round,” said Wendy Brannen, a member of ASA’s senior staff who represents the organization on the Rural Minds Partnership Council.
